Archive for the ‘Construction’ Category

How fast can you build 1,000 houses in North Korea?

Sunday, October 4th, 2020

By: Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

A couple of days ago, KCNA followed Kim Jong-un to Kimhwa county (in Kangwon province) for a flooding damage reconstruction inspection visit. It’s a standard activity with fairly standard reporting, but what caught my eye was the timespan the article speaks of (my emphasis):

Vividly recalling the day in the mid-August when a helicopter was used to learn about the situation of the disaster after over 900 mm disastrous downpour cut off even the roads and when he was shocked to hear the horrifying report that more than 1 000 dwelling houses were destroyed, he said that they all seem to have happened just yesterday.

Hearing the report that about 88 percent of the total construction project has now been done for nearly 1 000 families- several-storey dwelling houses in township area and single-storey dwelling houses in the ri of the county, he said with great satisfaction that the People’s Army is making world-startling achievements under the energetic leadership and meticulous guidance of our Party.

(Source: “Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un Inspects Sites of Reconstruction in Kimhwa County,” KCNA, 2/10/2020.)

So — flooding in mid-August. 1,000 dwelling houses swept away. Fast forward to early October, about a month and a half later, and 88 percent of these houses are now reconstructed?

Something sounds quite odd here, because that’s an awful lot of houses in a very short period of time. For a comparison, the average construction house in the US takes 7.7 months from construction start to finish.

I am by no means knowledgeable in engineering or housing construction, so if any readers can think of how this can all be squared, do please send an email.

What is possible is that many new houses have been built, but with speed rather than quality being the number one priority. Such houses would likely have a hard time withstanding future flooding, which will occur, because it does almost every year. Aid workers I spoke to for this article pointed to poor housing construction as one of the main causes for the high rates of material destruction and fatalities in flooding in North Korea.

That’s the thing about politically motivated deadlines and speed pressures — something has to give in the process, and often, it’s quality.

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Mobilized North Koreans pay day laborers to take their spots at construction sites

Tuesday, December 11th, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

More and more people are now paying their way to getting out of mandatory mobilized labor, reports Daily NK:

There has been a rise in the number of North Koreans paying others to take their place in mandatory state-led construction projects, sources in the country report.

“Some North Koreans don’t want to work in state-led construction projects, so they find a way to send others as their replacement,” said a South Pyongan Province-based source on December 5. “It’s common for people to pay day laborers in Yokjong District, Pyongsong City, to work at construction projects.”

Generally speaking, enterprises, the Korean Socialist Women’s Alliance and Kim Il Sung-Kim Jong Ilism Youth Alliance send workers to participate in state-led construction projects. Recently, however, there have been more cases where others are sent to the construction sites instead of the designated workers, the source reported.

“The construction of the ‘Chongchongang Power Station in Tiers’ at the basin of the Chongchon River in South Pyongan Province is almost finished, but there are too many ‘replacement’ construction workers there,” he said.

The Women’s Alliance Special Labor Brigades in Pyongsong’s Yangji District sent a total of 15-20 people to the construction site, but many of these workers are in fact replacements for others who were mobilized for the project.

This suggests that North Koreans are paying more attention to their own personal lives than the fulfillment of their national duties.

During his 2016 New Year’s Address, Kim said, “The Paektusan Hero Youth Power Station, Chongchongang Power Station in Tiers, Sci-Tech Complex, Mirae Scientists Street, Jangchon Vegetable Cooperative Farm and many other structures of lasting significance and beautiful socialist villages that embody the Party’s ideas and policies sprang up, showing the mettle of the country which is advancing by leaps and bounds reducing ten years to one.”

North Korean state media reported in November 2015 that a ceremony celebrating the start of construction on Chongchongang power plant was held at the Huiceon No. 9 Power Plant, but the project has dragged on for three years due to construction problems, a separate source in South Pyongan Province.

“Some have voiced concern about issues with the construction plans for the power plant, ” he said, adding that the majority of the “replacement” construction workers who are paid to work on the construction sites are said to perform unsatisfactorily.

The organizations that traditionally send workers to construction sites are not fulfilling their responsibilities properly, either. The Women’s Alliance, Youth Alliance and enterprises don’t bother to check whether the right people are going to the construction sites, the source said.

“When a replacement is sent to a construction site, they are guaranteed three days of food, along with three days of wages equaling 60 yuan, along with another 20 yuan to pay for their transportation. So in total, they receive 80 yuan,” he said.

Replacement day laborers are also prevalent in North Korea’s agricultural sector, and receive three meals a day along with 20 yuan for eight hours of work.

Article source:
Day laborers paid to replace regular workforce at construction sites
Ha Yoon Ah
Daily NK
2018-12-11

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Regime takes two thirds of worker’s salaries for ‘loyalty funds’

Wednesday, August 8th, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Daily NK:

As the North Korean authorities shift the financial burden of preparing for the anniversary of North Korea’s establishment on September 9 and the development of the Wonsan-Kalma Marine Tourist Zone, residents are increasingly voicing their complaints over the inherent unfairness of the situation.

“Employees at a joint Sino-North Korean enterprise [name redacted for the safety of the source] located in Rason usually receive 300 yuan (around 50,000 South Korean won) per month, but this month they were only paid 100 yuan,” said a source in North Hamgyong Province on August 6. “Without any prior notice, 200 yuan was taken out of their salaries to be used as funding for regime projects.”

The North Korean authorities have placed great importance on the development of the Wonsan area along with events surrounding the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the nation on September 9. State officials are forcibly taking money from the pockets of ordinary citizens to pay for these projects, according to the source.

“In the past, the state took some money from people’s salaries but never a full two-thirds,” he said. “It’s difficult enough surviving on 200 yuan, so people are very worried about how to survive off a measly 100 yuan.”

One family working at the enterprise typically earns 400 yuan a month but received just 200 yuan this month, he said, explaining that “it’s not enough to even get them through the month […] They have no money saved up and are worried that more money will be taken out of their salaries next month as well.”

Overseas workers are also being forced to contribute part of their salaries to what is referred to as a “loyalty fund.”

“There is money that we have traditionally given to the state each month, but now they have told us we need to give them 2,000 yuan more per month […] Business is difficult these days, which forces us to take money out of our employees’ salaries to pay state officials,” the manager of a North Korean restaurant in China’s Liaoning Province said.

The manager also noted that the authorities were asking for more money to be paid at ever more frequent intervals of time. “Our employees are usually forced to give money [to the loyalty fund] each month, but our employees are up in arms about the amount taken out by the state this month,” the manager said, expressing concern that feelings of discontent among their employees could lead to them running away or even defecting to South Korea.

Full article and source:
Regime takes up to two-thirds of salaries from workers for ‘loyalty funds’
Ha Yoon-ah
Daily NK
2018-08-08

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Thousands of North Korean workers enter Russia despite UN ban

Thursday, August 2nd, 2018

Benjamin Katzeff Silberstein

Reports Wall Street Journal:

Russia is letting thousands of new North Korean laborers enter the country and issuing fresh work permits—actions U.S. officials say potentially violate United Nations sanctions aimed at cutting cash flows to Pyongyang and pressing it to give up nuclear weapons.

The U.N. Security Council in September barred governments from issuing new work permits to North Koreans, though some existing labor contracts were allowed to continue.

Since the ban, more than 10,000 new North Korean workers have registered in Russia, according to Russian Interior Ministry records reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Meanwhile, at least 700 new work permits have been issued to North Koreans this year, according to Labor Ministry records.

[…]

North Korean laborers have helped feed the construction boom in St. Petersburg, according to local businessmen.

“They work till they drop,” said a contractor who hires North Koreans across the city. Workers arrive at construction sites at 7 a.m. and work until 10 p.m. or even midnight, taking just two half-hour breaks for meals of rice and dried fish, he said.

Local developers say they pay companies that hire out North Korean workers—firms they say often represent North Korean institutions such as the military or state conglomerates—about 100,000 rubles ($1,600) a month per worker. In government filings and job advertisements, such companies list monthly worker salaries of 16,000 to 20,000 rubles.

That 80% difference is in line with U.S. assessments that North Korea’s government takes the bulk of earnings.

U.N. sanctions mean these laborers should be gone by September, a year after they went into effect, because the workers are required to leave once their permits expire, usually within a year. Even workers with multiyear permits must be out by the end of 2019 under the sanctions.

Yet many firms contracting out laborers—Russian companies owned and run by North Koreans, according to corporate documents and researchers—are investing in new offices, applying for new work permits and negotiating new projects.

“The Kim regime continues to dispatch citizens abroad,” said C4ADS, a nonprofit that advises the U.S. government on security risks, in a report released Thursday. “In doing so, it continues to flout international sanctions to generate foreign currency.”

About 100,000 or more North Korean laborers have been working overseas in recent years, the U.S. State Department said. Pyongyang’s labor exports earned as much as $2 billion a year for the Kim regime, analysts say.

According to Russian government data, around 24,000 North Koreans were officially working in the country at the end of last year.

Full article and source:
Thousands of North Korean Workers Enter Russia Despite U.N. Ban
Ian Talley and Anatoly Kurmanev
Wall Street Journal
2018-08-02

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The Koreas summit and the North Korean economy: why infrastructure is on the table

Sunday, April 29th, 2018

By Benjamin Katzeff 

It’s much to soon to expect concrete outcomes from all the summitry relating to the North Korean economy. Tentative signs suggest, however, that infrastructure will be on the table for the road ahead. A few of them:

  • Aside from a mention of promoting “balanced economic growth,” it’s really the only concrete measure within the economic sphere mention in the Panmunjom declaration: As a first step, the two sides agreed to adopt practical steps towards the connection and modernisation of the railways and roads on the eastern transportation corridor as well as between Seoul and Sinuiju for their utilisation. Sure, this is fairly vague too, but at least it’s something.
  • Kim mentioned infrastructure and railways during the summit, lamenting the comparatively poor state of North Korea’s transportation system:

During the talks, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un praised the quality of South Korea’s high-speed train system in Pyeongchang, while citing worries that if Moon were to visit the North, he would be inconvenienced since the transportation infrastructure there is much less advanced. “If (Moon) comes to the North after living in the South, it may be embarrassing. We will make preparations for a comfortable visit,” Kim said.

The South Korean president responded with hopes of restarting cooperation to build a railway connecting the South and North — which the two sides had agreed on during previous inter-Korean summits, yet never put to action.

“If the railroad is connected with the North, both the South and North can use high-speed trains. This is contained in the joint declarations of June 15 (2000), and Oct. 4 (2007), but it has not been executed over the past 10 years,” Moon said.

In other words, it’s already being talked about by the two leaders. It’s fairly uncontroversial and not politically touchy, at least not relatively speaking.

  • It’s not a coincidence that Putin mentioned infrastructure specifically during a phone call with Moon Jae-in about the summit. In theory, at least, it’s a potential win-win-win situation, both for North and South Korea and for other countries in the region, and therefore politically palatable. The idea of massive infrastructure projects as a way to facilitate trade, and peace, is certainly not new and has been part of the plan for inter-Korean economic exchange before, and the blueprints are too many to fully keep track of. Kim Jong-un will almost certainly be seeking support in this area, a crucial one for the second leg of Byungjin.

 

 

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Kalma Coastal Tourist Area Update via Planet Labs

Wednesday, April 4th, 2018

Planet Labs uploaded some high-resolution imagery of the Kalma Peninsula from 2018-3-25 (you can see a sample of the imagery in my tweet here). With it, we can begin to assess the progress of the construction of the Kalma Coastal Tourist Area. I overlaid this imagery onto Google Earth and traced out the buildings under construction. This allowed me to make a reasonably accurate map of the completed tourist area:

The final large-scale housing project launched under Kim Jong-il was the eastern end of Mansudae Street (AKA Changjon Street, “Pyonghattan”). Kim Jong-il died before this was finished, but the completion of this project was one of the first policy successes claimed by Kim Jong-un.  Several others quickly followed: Unha Scientists Street, Wisong Scientists Street, Mirae Scientists Street, and Ryomyong Street.

I have only conducted superficial measures (this is only a blog post after all), but it appears the Kalma Coastal Tourist Area is the most ambitious construction project launched yet in the Kim Jong-un era (in terms of size and number of buildings). There are well over 100 facilities under construction on the beach, stretched over a four-kilometer-long construction site (the Ryomyong Project site was just over two kilometers long by comparison).

Some of the inputs for this project can be domestically sourced, particularly labor (conscripted soldiers), steel, and concrete. Other amenities like flat screen TVs (component parts), electrical equipment (solar panels), computers, sports equipment, transportation equipment will have to be imported at a time when constraints on North Korea’s ability to conduct foreign trade are most acute.

Pictured below (KCTV): Soldier working on the Kalma construction site:

Another item of concern to me is that the North Koreans are literally building houses on sand, and for this kind of work, you need to install a strong foundation before the actual building can be erected. KCTV footage of the construction site (broadcast the same day as the Planet image was taken) reveals that they don’t appear to be doing this:

Completing this project within one year (the rumored construction time) would be a monumental feat. It is possible that, as with Mirae Scientist Street (and maybe others), the buildings will be “completed” on the outside, but only one or two will be completed on the inside (the ones Kim Jong-un will visit). The rest will remain uncompleted on the inside for the unknown period of time it takes for them to be finished. Mirae Scientist Street still has unoccupied buildings, and it is possible Ryomyong does as well.

Click here to read the updated post on the history of this facility.

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South Hamgyong Sci-Tech Library

Monday, April 2nd, 2018

This information has already been published in RFA (in Korean), so here is the English version:

Pictured below is the Sci-Tech Complex in Pyongyang:

It is one of the most iconic buildings of the Kim Jong-un era. On the inside, it is an educational facility for science and technology, the development of which is a cornerstone of economic policy under Kim Jong-un. On the outside, the building (designed to look like a beryllium atom [four electrons]) is a showcase piece for the new style of design and architecture characteristic of the Kim Jong-un era.

In true North Korean style, which aims to establish equality across each province, it is possible that new “Sci-Tech Libraries” (과학기술도서관), based on the model complex in Pyongyang, are being constructed in each of North Korea’s provinces. I have to say “probably” because I am only aware of one new Sci-Tech Library in Hamhung, and I cannot say the plan is to build them across the country until I see them in other provinces.

According to Google Earth imagery (see below), the South Hamgyong Sci-Tech Library was built on the site of the former South Hamgyong Cultural Exhibition House sometime between 2016-2-26 (Top) and 2016-11-30 (Bottom).

Here are before and after ground-level photos:

The new building appears to be a mixture of architectural styles seen in Ryomyong  and Mirae Scientists Street. It contains two features resembling stylized hydrogen atoms, or planets with rings, on the roof. There is also a statue of a helium atom (two electrons) in front of the building.

The completion of this facility was not announced in the official media as far as I am aware, so this slipped by me until I stumbled on a broadcast image of a library card that featured the new building.

It is possible that this is a unique facility and that it will not be replicated in other parts of the country. Hamhung has a number of specialized research and production facilities (including the largest branch of the State Academy of Science outside of Pyongyang), and this could be a facility meant to nurture the particular industries of the area. However, it could also be the first Sci-Tech Library at the provincial level, and more are on the way. We will have to wait and see.

North Korea has been regularly featuring provincial-level “Sci-Tech Exhibitions” in the official media. The Pyongyang exhibitions are held in the Sci-Tech Complex, so perhaps the provincial exhibitions will be held in Sci-Tech Libraries such as these in the future.

North Korea was already in the process of updating local libraries (도서관) into “Miraewon” (미래원–roughly translated as “Future Complexes”). I am unsure if this will continue, or if new libraries will be re-branded as “Sci-Tech Libraries”…

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Namyang’s post 2016 flood recovery

Wednesday, March 21st, 2018

New Google Earth imagery shows for the first time the scale of the construction work taken in Namyang District of Onsong County in North Hamgyong Province.

In September of 2016, areas of North Korea along the Tumen River experienced severe devastation from flooding. One of these areas was Namyang, across the river from the Chinese city of Tumen.

Here are Planet Labs images that give a sense of the scale of the damage during the flood:

August 28, 2016

September 7, 2016

September 17, 2016

Here are Google Earth images of Namyang before and after the flooding:

This construction project was monitored from China. Here are a couple of the pictures that were taken (Photo Credit: Getty)

 

Looking at the satellite imagery of the renovated Namyang, there are a few interesting changes. First, the Namyang market was destroyed in the flood and I am not sure where the new one is (or if there is a new one).

Second, a small revolutionary site was moved farther from the river so it will not be washed away again:

Third, we can see construction of the new Namyang-Tumen Bridge underway (but apparently stalled):

The image on the left is 2015-9-13. The image on the right is 2018-1-31. The new bridge is approximately 510m in length and will be able to support traffic in both directions simultaneously.  It is the third border bridge to be renovated/built after the Dandong-Sinuiju Bridge and the Rason-Hunchun (Quanhe-Wonjong) Bridge. This bridge was announced in 2014 and was supposed to be completed by 2016.

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Kalma Coastal Tourist Area Update

Thursday, March 15th, 2018

Planet Labs (@planetlabs) has posted some March 2018 imagery of construction of the Kalma Coastal Tourist Area construction site which help bring the project into greater focus.

There appear to be two staging areas for the construction site where workers live and supplies are stored.

Below are close-ups of the two large staging areas circled in yellow in the image above:

 

I overlaid recent Planet images onto Google Earth and outlined the building and facility construction site. The coastal resort is taking place in the area outlined in yellow below:

Here are a couple of Planet images of the construction site where we can see a few building foundations have been set:

I believe this project is supposed to be completed in about a year, so it will be worthwhile to check in on it periodically with Planet images to see how the project is developing.

See previous (and updated) blog post on this topic here.

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Kim Jong-un’s new model farms

Thursday, February 8th, 2018

In the most recent issue of Kumsugangsan, the North Koreans highlighted the renovation work of Poman-ri (one of the eight scenic vistas of the songun era).

Here is the article:

A quick check with the imagery on Planet Labs does indicate that there was a new health complex built (normal at the town level, but only specially allocated at the village level), new apartment buildings constructed, and a school appears to have been renovated (also very common in North Korea these days).

Pictured above (Top): Poman-ri as seen on Google Earth in 2015-8-26 (Bottom): Planet imagery from 2018-2-3 showing renovated area.

This is not the first farm to be “renovated” in the Kim Jong-un era. It is also not the largest village to be renovated (so far it appears to be one of the smallest). So what is going on here? North Korea appears to be in the process of constructing new “model farms” in the KJU era. Previous “model farms,” such as Chongsan-ri in Nampho, are primarily associated with revolutionary works of Kim Il-sung or Kim Jong-il. These new farms, however, are intended to spearhead Sci-Tech achievements under Kim Jong-un which can be replicated across the country.

Jangchon-ri  (AKA “DPRK-Libya Friendship Jangchon Co-op Farm”) on the outskirts of Pyongyang appears to have been the first of Kim Jong-un’s new model farms. Consequently, it has received the most attention in the official media; it has been visited at least twice by Kim Jong-un; and it receives regular foreign tourists, journalists, and even foreign NGOs.

Images via Google Earth. Top dated 2014-3-13 (before). The bottom is dated 2015-5-20 (after)

KCNA reports from Kim Jong-un’s first visit to the farm after it was renovated (2015-6-30):

Kim Jong Un, first secretary of the Workers’ Party of Korea, first chairman of the DPRK National Defence Commission and supreme commander of the Korean People’s Army, gave field guidance to the Jangchon Vegetable Co-op Farm in Sadong District, Pyongyang City, whose looks have undergone a radical change to be a model and a standard of the socialist rural cultural construction.

He set forth a task to build the farm into an exemplary farm and icon of greenhouse vegetable production when providing field guidance to the farm associated with the immortal history of leadership given by President Kim Il Sung and leader Kim Jong Il in June last year. He guided the layout for the construction of Jangchon area several times and took benevolent measures for settling the issues arising in it.

He went round the mosaic depicting smiling Kim Il Sung, a monument to the revolutionary activities of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il, the room for the education in the revolutionary history and the room dedicated to the history of the farm.

He recalled that the farm developed into a dependable producer of vegetables under the warm and meticulous care of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il who made indefatigable efforts to the last moments of their lives to provide the Pyongyang citizens with fresh vegetables all the year round.

He went round the hall of culture, science and technology disseminating center, Jangchon health complex, modern dwelling houses and other places to learn about the construction in detail.

He praised the farm for building the hall of culture as well as a national art theatre so that the farmers may fully enjoy a cultural and emotional life and constructing a nice park and a leisure ground having a volleyball court, a swimming pool, a roller-skate ring and a fishpond.

He was satisfied to see the library, e-reading room and technology study room in the science and technology disseminating center and modern equipment in the soil analysis room and the room for examining damage done by insects.

Appreciating the successful construction of modern dwelling houses, in particular, he was pleased that the farm carried out the party’s policy of making an effective use of natural energy and turning the village into an orchard by equipping each house with solar water heater, solar cells and a methane gas supply system and planting fruit trees around each house.

He went round mud-walled plastic sheet greenhouses and arch-style chain greenhouses to learn in detail about the vegetable production and management of the farm.

He enjoyed a bird’s-eye view of the farm from the observation deck.

He praised the Pyongyang City for working an eye-opening miracle in the socialist rural cultural construction as required by the party and being able to proudly greet the grand festival in October.

He extended thanks in the name of the Party Central Committee to farmers of the farm and officials and other working people in Pyongyang City for making a positive contribution to turning the Jangchon area into a spectacular farm reminiscent of a rural city as required by the party.

It is the resolution and will of the party to bring about a radical turn in the rural cultural construction with this farm as an example and torch, he said, giving Pyongyang City an instruction to push ahead under a plan with the work to spruce up well the farms on the outskirts of the city on the basis of the successes and experience already gained.

He expressed expectation and belief that Pyongyang City would take the lead in the drive to implement the behests of the leaders and uphold the party policies in the future as a political, economic and cultural hub of socialist Korea having the mission to hold aloft the banner of the three revolutions-ideological, technical and cultural.

He was accompanied by Hwang Pyong So, Choe Ryong Hae and Ri Jae Il.

The words in bold above indicate the types of facilities that are to be constructed at all of the new model farms. These types of facilities are already common at the city- and town-level, but still relatively rare at the village level. It would also be interesting to know if this farm (and other similar model farms) operate under different agriculture policies–such as de-facto family plots, or perhaps some flexibility to make agricultural decisions on the spot. Time will tell.

These types of projects are typically rolled out at the provincial level, so other than Jangchon-ri (Pyongyang) and Poman-ri (North Hwanghae), what other model farms can we point to that are being renovated under this policy?

1. Thaesong-ri (Nampho): This farm was featured on KCTV on 2017-9-21, and miraculously it has not been deleted by YouTube). KCTV described the village as a model village with new facilities that are pleasure to live and work in.

I have previously mentioned this village in Radio Free Asia.

2. Sokha-ri (North Phyongan): This farm was featured on KCTV on 2018-1-9, but YouTube has since deleted the material. Shame on them.

3. Sinchang-ri (South Hwanghae): This farm was featured on KCTV on 2017-9-20. This village has actually undergone at least two rounds of renovations. I believe the first round was done because the village is next to a popular road artery (North Korea has long been cleaning up villages long the main roads). The second round of renovations is due to the new model farm policy under Kim Jong-un.

Pictured above (Top): 2006-12-25 (Middle): 2014-3-20–showing completed first renovation (Bottom): 2016-10-23–showing completed second renovation in the new model farm style.

4. Jikha-ri (North Hamgyong):  This was also featured on KCTV on 2017-11-5, but has also been deleted by YouTube. I previously pointed it out to RFA on 2016-6-22.

Image above (Top): 2015-9-20 (Bottom): 2016-5-7–showing that the village is under renovation.

5. Phyongsu-dong (South Hamgyong): According to imagery on Planet.com, renovation of this farm has been completed, but I have not see it appear in the North Korean media to date. I previously mentioned it in RFA here.

6. Songchon-dong (Kangwon): This farm renovation has yet to appear in the official media (as far as I am aware). I previously reported in RFA that is sits just outside the security perimeter of Kim Jong-un’s Wonsan compound:

Image dates (Top): 2016-2-26 (Middle): 2017-2-14 (Bottom): Planet image from 2018 showing construction continues to progress.

This is not the only village to be renovated in Kangwon. However, I believe it is the only renovation project in the province related to this new series of model farms. Another village in south Kangwon Province, Thaebek-ri (38.574028°, 127.673046°), has also been renovated in the last few years, and several other farms in Kangwon were renovated as part of the Sepho Tableland Project.

Below is the information that remains TBD.

1. Manbok-dong (Rason): This area in Sonbong was formerly named Paekhak-ri, and it was the site where the North Korean government constructed new housing following floods in the summer of 2015. I could be wrong, but I believe that the post-flood housing is being pragmatically named as the new model farm in the city. However, I could be wrong. I searched for other village renovation in Rason on Planet Labs imagery and Google Earth, but did not find anything significant.

 

2. South Phyongan: I am still unsure which village in South Phyongan will be designated as the model farm to be built in this new style. I reported in RFA that lots of housing around Pyongyang Airport was being renovated back in May 2017, some of which is in South Phyongan, but none of these housing projects seem to match the new model farm design. According to a later KCTV report on 2017-11-20 (before it was deleted by Youtube), the Ministry of Coal Mining (석탄공업성), Ministry of Forestry (림업성), National Tourism Bureau (국가관광총국), and the Korea Oceanic Company (조선대양총회사) built new housing in the Pyongyang International Airport District. 1,000 homes were built earlier than scheduled and work was continuing on the remaining houses. However, it is possible that construction on the province’s new model farm has not yet begun in this province.

3. Jagang Province: I have searched the North Korean media, Google Earth imagery, and Planet imagery, but have not seen where construction on a new model farm has begun.

4. Ryanggang Province:  I have searched the North Korean media, Google Earth imagery, and Planet imagery, but have not seen where construction on a new model farm has begun.

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